‘So your birthday lunch at last, eh Gracie,’ said Paul. ‘Would you like to give thanks for the food as it’s your birthday?’
Gracie did and Paul stood and carved into the lamb. Blood spurted out like sauce and settled in a red pool in the bottom of the dish. Beth saw Paul look over at Edie again.
‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘I should have put it on earlier.’
‘Are you okay, Beth?’ asked Edie. ‘Is something wrong? Has Young Colin upset you? Papa can take to him with his umbrella if he has.’
‘No, no, I just have a bit of a headache but I’m fine. I’m not going to miss Gracie’s birthday for anything.’ Even Beth could hear the lie in her voice. It was more than just a headache — but what was it?
Paul took the knife to the lamb again and carved around the edges.
‘Perhaps it can go back in the oven for a bit, Beth,’ he suggested.
‘Hmm what?’ she replied. Her mind was so full of fog and she shook her head to try and shake it out.
Edie and Paul glanced at each other again, Gracie looked back and forward between everyone.
‘I’m okay, really, everyone. Let’s concentrate on the birthday girl.’
‘Beth, you look really pretty today,’ Edie said. ‘I think those clothes look better on you than they ever did on me.’
Beth looked down at her clothes. She was wearing the pale blue skirt and bodice that Edie had given her.
‘We are really going to miss you when you finally agree to set a date with Young Colin Eales,’ Edie said.
‘There’s no rush,’ snapped Beth, and she looked at Edie’s clothes, so different to what she was wearing. Edie was wearing smart office-y clothes: a grey woollen skirt, A-line and close fitting that stopped a couple of inches above her ankle, and a crisp white shirt. She had a grey suit jacket to match but she had taken it off after church. The first time she wore the outfit Paul had asked her if she didn’t look a tad too manly. Edie said sharply that she looked modern and capable.
‘We must have a birthday cake,’ demanded Gracie.
‘Of course,’ said Edie, reaching over and playing with her curls. ‘Birthday milk from a cow that was having her birthday the day she was milked, birthday bread from a baker whose birthday it is and birthday jam made by our own Beth on her birthday. But not till after you’ve eaten your meat and vegetables.’
‘Well that’s easy,’ said Gracie, looking at the tiny serves of food on her plate. She popped the last piece of lamb in her mouth and bounced from the table and danced around them, her arms flailing wildly. Beth needed more tea to settle her stomach and she reached out for the milk but she knocked the teapot off the table and the spout broke and the handle snapped off and Gracie stopped dancing and they all cried ‘Ohhh’ in unison.
Edie said quickly, ‘Don’t worry about putting anything away, Beth, we’ll all do it later, after we’ve had afternoon tea. Why don’t you have a bit of a snooze?’
‘Yes, I think you should,’ said Paul. ‘I know you’ll survive whatever has you in a tether, but I’m not sure Lucy’s crockery will.’
So Beth lay down and the others cleaned up after lunch.
The birthday cake was to be saved for afternoon tea when it was officially Gracie’s birthday. But Edie knew the real reason they were delaying the cake was to wait until after Theo Hooley’s inevitable visit.
Beth joined them after the cleaning up and they sat in the cane chairs in the sunroom off from the dining room. It had bay windows that stretched from the floor to the ceiling so you could either look towards the back garden or past the study to the front, where you would see Theo and his band of children as he turned up the driveway. Edie sat looking to the back garden and tried to read To Win the Love He Sought, but Beth knew she wasn’t really reading because she hadn’t turned one page in half an hour and kept looking at the clock every couple of minutes, which seemed to be taking a year to get to three.
Beth was sitting on the floor measuring Gracie for a new coat for next winter. She made sure to take into account the extra inches the child might grow over the summer, but Gracie was still very small and didn’t seem to grow at the same rate as her sister’s children had.
‘I’m giving a speech tomorrow,’ said Paul, filling the room with his voice. ‘Now that we have secured an old age pension, I am agitating for a maternity payment for poor mothers so they don’t have to hand their children over to orphanages.’
Beth smiled at him. The sun shining through the windows was warm and she felt lazy and drowsy from lunch. The fog in her head was thickening.
A while later Edie said, ‘How long do you think he will keep persisting?’
Paul raised an eyebrow and looked at Edie
